In accordance with the state’s proposal to compensate the descendants of slaves, black Californians may be eligible for $360,000 each.
California must “admit its sins and rewrite the narrative,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber said at a meeting today, in order to make way for measures that are similar to those already being explored in other states.
Nevertheless, there hasn’t been any information provided about how the $650 billion project will be paid for despite worries about California’s expanding deficit, which is predicted to get worse due to a jobless crisis in the state’s tax-producing Silicon Valley.
The black community was divided on the proposal, with one woman stating that throwing money at the problem would not end racial injustice. Some claimed the program provided black Americans with nothing more than “political theater” and “promotion,” as opposed to actual assistance.
Following widespread racial justice demonstrations in the wake of George Floyd’s death, California Governor Gavin Newsom established a nine-person reparations task force in 2020. Earlier estimates claimed the rewards might be as much as $220,000 per for the state’s 1.8 million black citizens.
In contrast, the task committee said in a meeting on Friday that the checks might actually go as high as $350,000 as they work to make up for years of anti-Black behavior.
READ ALSO: Student Debt Relief Case: Texans Await Supreme Court Ruling
California Residents Voice Their Concerns
How the state could precisely gauge the harm endured by its black inhabitants has presented challenges from the beginning. Concerns regarding how the money will actually be paid were also raised by the locals.
The money must be paid directly to black individuals in cash, a man in a top hat stated during the gathering. California’s task force is led by Kamilah Moore, is vice-chaired by Dr. Amos C. Brown, and includes Monica Montgomery Steppe of San Diego, Dr. Cheryl Grills, Lisa Holder, Donald K. Tamaki, Jovan Scott Lewis, and Reginald Jones-Sawyer.
Locals attacked the task force during the contentious meeting on Friday, with one man yelling for Moore to “drop-down and move aside” because she wasn’t qualified for the position.
While another woman noted that none of the task force’s three creators—Governor Gavin Newsom, Senate President Toni Atkins, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon—are black.
In California, white households typically have six times as much wealth as black ones. A formula that would use the state’s racial wealth difference to calculate how much slave descendants have lost is being considered by the task force.
According to a conservative estimate, the state owed its black residents $636.7 billion. Calculating damages for particular injustices like housing discrimination, mass incarceration, and health harms was another strategy that was proposed.
The group has until July 1 to publish its recommendations and specify the precise steps that will be taken to make the restitution. The choice to adopt them will subsequently be made by the legislature.
Reparations for black individuals have gained popularity across the country, with comparable task groups being established in towns including Boston, Massachusetts; St. Paul, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; and San Francisco and Los Angeles, California.
The first US city to offer reparations to its Black residents, including housing grants, was Evanston, Illinois, in 2021.
READ ALSO: Over 3000 Asian People’s DLs Sent To A Gruesome Crime Group
